HD editor examples

[Walter Biscardi]

[Marc Rolph] “can the 20″ monitors do HD editing? I was under the impression that the 23″ was needed to display HD video.”

You can edit HD with any monitor, even an old 17″ CRT monitor. If you’re talking about the external video display, then you want an HD card to send out the signal to your external monitor.

The editing part internal to the computer doesn’t matter what type of monitor you use.

I’ll second Oliver on the sweetness of the 20″ as I just added one to our second suite, but I still love the real estate of the 23″, especially with After Effects work. I still run the 23″ paired with the 17″ in my primary HD suite because it’s just a good setup for me.

And I’ll second everyone on placing the monitors down, not up. Even looking straight ahead can cause some neck pain in the back of the neck. In a previous company, we designed our desks with a 3″ drop (back in the CRT days) so the editor actually edited looking slightly downwards, in pretty much a natural sitting position, when sitting at a keyboard. Kind of like how you sit and look at a laptop, the monitor is below the level of your eyes so you look down at it. Really made long edit sessions and all nighters less of a pain. With the Apple Flat Panels, I simply set them on the desk and their height is good for me.

My desks are deeper than most “traditional” editing desks to putting the monitors on the desk is no big deal. My current desk is 36″ deep and the country table I’m going to pick up soon is 30″ deep.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Oliver Peters]

Marc,

I was talking about your computer displays and not the video monitor. Video monitors are another issue, since flat panels only have one native resolution. A flat panel that is right for HD will have to “blow up” the SD image to display it. General video will look tolerable, but images with text and detail won’t. CRTs are better for this but they are a fading (or dying) breed.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com